Relationship between the growth in preterm infants and their nutritional state in neonatal period

Abstract

We analyzed the physical development indicators of two groups of children aged 6 and 12 months who were born prematurely and had different dynamics of blood levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the neonatal period. At the age of 6 and 12 months, deviations in height or body weight from the reference values were more often observed in children who had a relatively low level of the hormone in the early neonatal period, followed by its increase in comparison with children who had the opposite dynamics of the hormone. In this group, a close relationship between somatometric indicators of infants and the blood content of IGF-1, albumin and glucose in newborns was revealed, which indicates a long-term persistence of the features of the nutritional status of the neonatal period and its influence on the subsequent physical development of these children.